Health, medicine, and nursing are fields that are gaining popularity in today’s world and that can give you the opportunity to reach others in ways that can change lives. If you have a strong interest in science and math and are comfortable being a leader, all kinds of doors are open to you, and those doors can lead to a rewarding career in health, medicine, or nursing. Whether you finish your education after obtaining an undergraduate degree or continue all the way through medical school, your interest in these fields can lead you anywhere you want to go.
Health-related careers are some of the most attractive and well-respected professions in the nation. They allow you to impact individual lives, as well as society as a whole. Joining the ranks of health care professionals means dedicating yourself to a life of service. In return, the careers offer job security, daily challenges, and the satisfaction of helping others in need.
Most health, medicine, and nursing graduates obtain master’s or doctoral degrees and then enter research, teaching, or health sciences professions. Others stop with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree and seek jobs as teachers, laboratory technicians, athletic trainers, therapy aides, wildlife technicians, or sales representatives.
You must have some type of college degree for even the most basic medical careers. However, this does not mean you must go for four years—some schools offer two-year programs for professions such as pharmaceutical or medical assisting.
If you decide to choose a health, medicine, or nursing career, chances are you won’t be looking for a job for long. Why the huge increase in the demand for health care professionals? The answer is simple: the rising number of elderly people—a boom expected to continue for 50 years. The impact of the steep rise affects various areas, including nursing and home health care.
In addition, health, medicine, and nursing careers offer some of the highest salaries in the working world today—with specialized physicians or surgeons making well over $300,000 a year at the highest end of the spectrum. However, undergraduate and medical school graduates don’t make nearly that much right out of school. Ranging from the $25,000 salary of a veterinary assistant to $250,000 for a specialty physician or surgeon, it all depends on which field you go into.
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